Office Depot to close at least 400 stores

Office Depot will close at least 400 U.S. stores, shedding more than 20% of the stores it now operatesin the U.S. after its merger with rival OfficeMax.

The company said the stores will be closed by 2016, with 150 of the closings coming at the end of this year. Office Depot(ODP) operated 1,912 stores in its North American division at the end of last year, and the OfficeMax merger added 823 stores to its lineup. The merger was completed in early November.

The company has not identified which stores it is closing.

The closings were widely anticipated since there are many locations where the two brands have stores close to one another.

There have been a number of store closings announced so far this year, as brick and mortar stores face more competition from online competitors such as Amazon(AMZN).

Office Depot rival Staples(SPLS) announced this year it would close 225 stores in North America, or about 12% of its locations, as it moved to trim costs and respond to more of its sales being completed online.